Entries from December 2018

Apalachee wrestling coach Randy Hill is seeing improvement from his team in the early part of the season as the Wildcats get ready to head into Christmas break.
“We’re getting better,” Hill said this week. “We’re still young and we want to keep improving. Our motto has kind of been let’s get 1 percent better every day and every match and by the time the end of the season comes, we’ll be ready to go.”
A handful of Wildcat wrestlers are off to strong starts, including senior Corbin Lang, a returning state placer who is 15-4 at 285 pounds. Fellow senior Alex Stephenson is 10-5 at 220, though Hill said he will be dropping to 195. Junior Bryson Ferguson is 17-10 at 145 pounds, and junior Allan Fulk is 13-7 at 138.
In a recent tournament at Creekview, the Wildcats placed eighth out of 13 teams overall, but had several individual placers. Lang took second, Tanner Carnes placed third at 195. Ferguson and Fulk both placed fourth, Hunter Noblett was fifth at 182, Leevi Norberg was fifth at 113, Andrea Avina was sixth at 152 and Caleb Waycaster was sixth at 132.
Hill said the Wildcats have also seen some progress from younger wrestlers. In the recent Junior Panther tournament, Joseph Bentley placed second at 220, Josh Delay was third at 132, Logan Lo was fourth at 160, Isaac Budu was fourth at 170, and middle schooler Brendan Reid was fourth at 172.
The Wildcats will be back in action Friday and Saturday in the Eric Hill Invitational at Loganville High School. The tournament will begin at 4 p.m. Friday with a Round Robin format and then resume at 9 a.m. Saturday with a single-elimination tournament.
After that, the Wildcats will compete Dec. 28-29 in a tournament at Lambert High, their last event before the GHSA Area 8-AAAAAA duals Jan. 12 at Habersham Central.

WBHS heads into Christmas break
Meanwhile, the Winder-Barrow wrestling team had its final showing Tuesday at Cherokee Bluff before the Christmas break and won’t be back in action until Jan. 5 at Oglethorpe County.
The Bulldoggs are coming off a 10th-place finish last weekend at the Cherokee Bluff Duals, where WBHS coach Matt Patton said they were short-handed.
“When it comes to our team, we’ve been working hard,” Patton said. “We’re definitely a lot more physical. If we can keep staying physical and pushing in practice, I think we’re going to be in good shape. Christmas break is going to tell a lot. It’s a time when some programs lose a lot of kids, but hopefully we can retain our roster.”
Patton said the Bulldoggs are getting solid performances from several wrestlers, including Morgan Bell, Mason Bell, Zach Thomas, Hunter Southern, Nate Allen, Gio DeJesus, Rosseau O Asu Abang and Dylan Iler. Allen, a first-year wrestler as a junior, in particular, has been upsetting more experienced wrestlers, Patton said.
“We’re filling the lineup this year and our more inexperienced guys have taken some losses to more experienced guys,” Patton said. “But it’s not like last year when we were losing all the time because of numbers. Once everybody finally gets on their target weight, I believe we’ll be pretty good.”

Jefferson and East Jackson hadn’t played each other since 2016, but the two rivals made up for lost time.
The Dragons (6-4 overall, 3-1 in 8-AAA) pulled out a 70-63 win over the Eagles (4-6 overall, 0-4 in 8-AAA) Tuesday at East Jackson in a region game decided in the final minute and filled with momentum swings.
“It’s been a while,” Jefferson coach Kevin Morris said of the Dragons’ last meeting with the Eagles. “These kids have never played them in a high school basketball game. It’s one of those deals where there’s been a lot of talk between kids throughout the year and throughout the past couple of years and that kind of stuff, so it’s good to come in here and get this one … You get road wins in the region, it’s huge."
Jefferson jumped out to an 18-2 lead early before East Jackson rallied and the game settled into a barnburner in the second half. The lively Eagle home crowd grew so raucous during one East Jackson run that coach David Akin had to address fans via microphone to keep off the court.
The Eagles took a 62-60 lead with four minutes left before Jefferson outscored the Eagles 10-1 the rest of the way to close out the region road win.
“Give them a lot of credit,” Morris said of East Jackson. “They had a chance to fold the tents, and they kept fighting. They kept fighting. Both teams were scrappy. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a dog fight.”
Three Jefferson players reached double figures, led by Jacob Radaker, who finished with 18 points. Donsha Gaither and Tryston Norman each added 15 points.
East Jackson was fueled by a fourth-quarter barrage from guard Makayl Rakestraw, who hit five 3-pointers during the period and finished with 24 points. Tay Howard added 19 points.
The Eagles trailed 56-47 early in the fourth quarter when Rakestraw caught fire, connecting on five 3-point attempts over a 2:16 span. His fifth gave East Jackson a 62-60 lead with 4:02 left, capping a 12-2 run.
“Makayl is one of those guys that truly believes that every shot is going in,” Akin said. “And he has that confidence to stay with it … What everybody saw tonight, that’s every day in practice.”
After that final 3-pointer, Morris called timeout to steady his team. His message: Relax.
“Just keep your composure,” the coach said of his pep talk. “Those shots are not going to fall all the time.”
Jefferson answered with six-straight points to take a 66-62 lead and then worked approximately 45 seconds off the clock on one possession before drawing a technical foul with only 35 seconds left in the game. Gaither hit those foul shots to increase the lead to 68-62, and Jefferson held on for the win.
“Just a lot of fight and a lot of character out of these guys,” Morris said. “It was definitely a hostile environment, and they did a good job of keeping their composure.”
Jefferson moves on to non-region games with Class AAAAAAA Mill Creek (Thursday, 6 p.m.) and Class AAAAAA Habersham Central (Saturday, 4:30 p.m.).
For East Jackson, the loss was the team’s fifth-straight. Akin said his team cannot continue to get off to slow starts, pointing to the early 18-2 deficit.
“It takes so much energy to get back in games, that it almost takes so much to get back in the game and then we can’t sustain it because we’ve put ourselves in such a hole,” Akin said. “So, if there’s something to take from it, it’s just a constant reminder that we have to play hard and play smart, and if we don’t do that, we’re just going to have some exciting games throughout the rest of the year that may or may not go our way.”
The Eagles play Landmark Christian Friday at home at 6 p.m., followed by a Saturday game against Flowery Branch at 5:45 p.m.

The Jefferson girls’ basketball team didn’t allow the sting of its first loss of the season to linger long.
Following a 60-53 defeat at Morgan County last Friday, the Dragons answered with a 53-30 road victory over intra-county foe East Jackson Tuesday to move to 9-1 and 3-1 in Region 8-AAA play.
“We just really preached about coming off a loss — the first time all year — and playing really hard because that’s something you can control,” Jefferson coach Greg Brown said. “I thought we did that. We weren’t really clean, I didn’t think, but I thought our energy and our effort kind of made up for some of that.”
Deshona Gaither paced Jefferson with 13 points, and Livi Blackstock contributed 10 points.
Brown said his team didn’t have its sharpest offensive night.
“I thought we were a little sloppy, missed some layups and we’re still struggling at the free-throw line,” Brown said. “That was an issue against Morgan the other night. It’s something we’re working on. We’ve just got to get through it right now. But overall, I was pretty pleased.”
Freshman Haven Rollins scored 14 points to lead East Jackson, which was facing a top-10 opponent for a third-straight game.
Led by its defensive pressure, Jefferson forced turnovers and scoring opportunities in running out to a 24-4 lead midway through the second quarter before taking a 24-9 advantage into halftime.
“I thought we played really hard on defense,” Brown said. “We got a lot of deflections. We got our hands on a lot of balls.”
A pair of 3-pointers from Allianne Clark in the final minute of the third quarter gave Jefferson a 40-18 edge heading into the fourth quarter. The lead grew to 27 points with just under four minutes left as the Dragons picked up a win in their first game with East Jackson since 2016.
East Jackson (3-9 overall, 1-3 in Region 8-AAA), which has lost three-straight games, will be off until Dec. 27 when it takes on Discovery at home in a holiday tournament.
Meanwhile, Jefferson moves on to games at West Hall on Friday (6 p.m.) and Habersham Central on Saturday (3 p.m.) as the Dragons look to continue their hot start. Despite having a young team, Jefferson is ranked No. 4 in the state with its fast start.
“I like where we’re at,” Brown said. “We’ve got a ways to go, but I like where we’re at. I like how we bounced back today after a loss. We’ll see how we do on Friday. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”
Brown said his team “is playing really hard.”
“That’s 99 percent of the battle,” he said. “If I don’t have to coach effort, then I can coach the other stuff.”

Jefferson will travel 160 miles for an out-of-state tournament, though one of the biggest names there will be an in-state foe.
The Dragons (14-0) will compete in the Smoky Mountain Duals in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. this Friday and Saturday with a field of teams that will include defending Class AAA duals champion North Hall.
Jefferson has dropped down into Class AAA this year and must unseat the Trojans if it wants to continue its streak of 17 consecutive state duals titles.
Jefferson and North Hall are not grouped in the same pool but would face each other on Day 2 in the championship round if both teams win their respective pools.
Coach Doug Thurmond, whose team has been wrestling in this event for a dozen years, would prefer not to see North Hall this early in the season.
“With our kids wrestling individually, they could see some of those same kids three or four times,” Thurmond said. “I don’t like wrestling the same people. That’s why we usually go out of state and look for tournaments where we won’t see the same people over and over. But you can’t help it if somebody decides to get in what you’ve been in for 12 years. It is what it is.”
While Jefferson facing North Hall could help the Dragons get a preview of the Trojans, “on the flip side, it will help them, too,” Thurmond said.
For the rest of this story, see the Dec. 19 edition of The Jackson Herald.

The Jefferson boys’ basketball team held two brief second-half leads against second-ranked Morgan County but were unable to knock off the defending 8-AAA champions in a key region matchup.
The Dragons (5-4, 2-1) suffered their first region defeat of the year Friday, falling 70-63 to the powerhouse Bulldogs (6-1, 3-0) on the road.
Donsha Gaither hit six 3-pointers and paced Jefferson with 18 points. A third-quarter 3-pointer from Gaither gave the Dragons a 36-34 lead. Jacob Radaker added 16 points and nine boards. Owen Parker finished with 13 points and five rebounds.
The Dragons fell down 23-15 during the second quarter, but led twice — 33-31 and 36-34 — in the third quarter before Morgan County, which shot 50 percent from the floor, closed the quarter on a 16-7 spurt and never looked back. The Bulldogs led by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter as they stayed unbeaten in the region.
The Dragons were coming off a 60-53 win over Franklin County last Tuesday.
Jefferson trailed by as many as nine points against the Lions early on and by a point at the half, 28-27, before holding on late for the region win. A 17-4 second-half run, capped with back-to-back 3-pointers from Gaither, gave Jefferson a 49-38 lead very early in the final period. Clinging to a 52-50 lead late, the Dragons put together an 8-3 run to close out the game.
Gaither led Jefferson with 16 points. Owen Parker and Jacob Radaker each contributed 11 points. Parker also had four steals. Jefferson forced 21 turnovers in the win.

Despite a 20-point effort from Carson Anderson, the Jackson County girls’ basketball team sustained its fifth-straight loss.
The Panthers (3-7, 0-3) fell to region foe Franklin County 52-35 Friday on the road after falling behind by 15 points in the first half. Jackson County trimmed the deficit to seven at one point in the second half before losing by 17 points.
“(We) played so hard in the second half … too big a deficit to overcome,” coach Monty McClure said. “Hopefully we got better in the game and gained some valuable experience moving forward.”
Jackson County was coming off a 44-40 non-region loss to Commerce last Tuesday during which another Panther rally fell short.
Anderson led Jackson County with 17 points, including five 3-pointers (for more on this game, see www.mainstreetnewssports.com).

Despite turnovers and missed free throws, a young Jefferson team had its chances to move to 9-0 but couldn’t overcome a talented Morgan County team.
The fourth-ranked Dragons (8-1, 2-1) lost 60-52 to the third-ranked Bulldogs Friday on the road, snapping an eight-game winning streak to start the season.
Jefferson, which came into the game ranked second in the state, held a double-digit second-half lead.
“It was a very competitive game,” coach Greg Brown said. “I think they are the best team in our region. We had a 10-point lead in the third quarter and just lost our composure for a few minutes.”
Deshona Gaither led Jefferson with 19 points, and Chloe Hiatt added 10 points.
The Dragons shot 6-for-21 at the free-throw line and committed 28 turnovers “and still had a chance to win at the end,” Brown said.
“We played really hard and learned a lot in the loss,” he added.
Jefferson had moved to 8-0 three days earlier, beating region opponent Franklin County 48-38 at home last Tuesday.
Livi Blackstock scored 18 points and Gaither added 16 points in the Dragons’ seventh win this year by 10 points or more.

The East Jackson Eagle wrestling team competed in Oconee County at the Tommy Warren Duals last Saturday.
The Eagles went up against Veterans, Monroe Area, Baldwin, St. Pius X. The team competed with only five wrestlers, head coach Andrew Gaddy said. “We only took 5 wrestlers this weekend, because we are fighting illnesses, so our team scores were not good,” Gaddy said.
Tyler Crow finished the weekend with a 3-1 record for the Eagles.

In a rough-and-rugged Region 8-AAA, East Jackson’s toughness on the court has to improve and improve quickly, according to Eagle coach David Akin.
East Jackson (4-5, 0-3) fell to seventh-ranked Hart County 66-48 Friday and didn’t demonstrate the resilience needed, according to the coach, to win this game against a ranked Bulldog team on the road. The Eagles, who have lost four straight, kept the game close for most of the second quarter, but fell behind by 17 by the end of the third en route to the loss.
“The bottom line is Hart County is tough; East Jackson is not,” Akin said. “And that was the difference in the second and third quarter.”
East Jackson, which was coming off a loss to Morgan County prior to Friday’s loss to Hart County, hosts Jefferson Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
“It’s not like it gets any easier,” Akin said. “Our kids just need to suck it up and figure out that every single play, they don’t get fouled because someone barely touches them. I just cannot believe how soft our team is. The least bit of adversity hits us and we just throw in the towel, and then we start arguing and we start getting mad at each other.”
Tay Howard, who led East Jackson with 21 points, kept the Eagles within striking distance at the half with 13 points , scoring around the basket on multiple occasions. His jumper with 2:22 left in the second quarter closed the Bulldogs’ lead to 25-22. But Hart County eventually stretched its lead out to 32-24 after Trevin Curry sank a short jumper in the closing seconds of the half.
Hart County then opened the third quarter with an 11-2 run, which led to a 48-31 Bulldog advantage heading into the fourth quarter. The lead quickly grew to 20 in the fourth quarter.
East Jackson did put together an 8-0 run to cut Hart County’s lead to 51-39 with 3:45 left in the game, but Hart County scored the next 10 points, ending any Eagle comeback hopes.
“I was thankful some of our guys, at least, played hard all the way through to the end that were in there, even though we were down 20,” Akin said.
Akin said his team “better figure it out or it’s going to be a really long season.” He, however, expects his team to be excited for Tuesday’s home game with intra-county rival Jefferson (7:30 p.m.). The two programs have not met since 2016.
“Maybe that will give us a little energy, but Jefferson’s not coming over there to lose,” Akin said. “And I think the guys just have this false sense of accomplishment because we play good for a quarter that everything’s good for us. It’s four quarters. At some point in time this team has got to put four quarters together. Not two, and not one.”

Hart County hit 11 3-pointers, seven of them coming from Shakendra Grove, as the fourth-ranked Bulldogs handed the East Jackson girls a 77-30 road loss Friday night.
Torrion Starks led Hart County with 26 points, and Grove added 23. Maurissa Thomas finished with 12 for East Jackson.
The loss completed a tough week for the Eagles against two highly-ranked Region 8-AAA foes.
The Eagles (3-8, 1-2) were coming off a 95-36 loss to eighth-ranked Morgan County Tuesday and then fell behind Hart County 52-21 at the half Friday. East Jackson was then held to nine points in the second half.
East Jackson hosts second-ranked Jefferson Tuesday at 6 p.m.